


A Night in the Mistfall Forest

by Centeris2



Category: Star Stable
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 16:07:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13461744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Centeris2/pseuds/Centeris2
Summary: Part of Ranger training involves surviving a night in the Mistfall woods, which ends up being a lot more challenging than it initially sounds.





	A Night in the Mistfall Forest

“So I’m supposed to spend a night, in the park, alone, without my horse,” Rebecca repeated to be sure she understood it.

“Correct! Then you will have passed your Ranger Survival Basic Training!” Alonso declared. Rebecca didn’t remember signing up to be a ranger, much less do their basic survival training. But it sounded simple enough, it was just a matter of camping out in the woods and returning to the ranger station in the morning.

That evening Rebecca was dropped off somewhere in the park, though with most of the park still blocked off there were only so many places they could leave her. She hadn’t looked where they were going, and she didn’t watch them leave as she was instructed. It was the ‘survival’ part of the test, she was supposed to find her own way back tomorrow morning after spending the night in the woods. It was supposed to simulate being a lost hiker, but Rebecca didn’t know how anyone could be lost for long. The reachable park was tiny, it took well under an hour to ride around it all. 

But for some reason they had it in their heads that Rebecca was going to become a park ranger volunteer or something, so here she was, looking at the sky as night began. She was allowed a backpack with ‘hiker items’ so she had some basic necessities. But she did not have a tent and was supposed to make her own shelter. With the pleasant weather she would be perfectly fine under a tree, maybe under a layer of leaves so the night creatures wouldn’t be disturbed by her. It would also be a bit warmer. 

Some downed branches and a pile of leaves later and Rebecca had a not so comfortable bed for the night. She listened to the wildlife, bats flying in the darkness, elk and wolves calling, skittering of animals through the grass. Nothing to do but sleep and wait for morning when she would be allowed to return and finish her test. 

Shuffling and startled cries in the distance woke Rebecca up. It was still night, she didn’t know how much sleep she had gotten, but there was something near her. She carefully sat up and looked around, eyes adjusting to the darkness. Nearby was a bear munching away on a bush laden with berries. Rebecca wasn’t sure what to do. Running would get the bear’s attention, and so far the wind was blowing towards Rebecca, keeping her scent downwind of the bear. She tried to remember what the little plaque about bears had said in the ranger center. Something about how they are smaller than their continental cousins, and have a diet consisting mostly of plants due to the plentiful flora of the park. But bears are still wild animals, and getting close to one is not advisable. 

The bear seemed to have no interest in her, moving from berry bush to berry bush, stripping the berries from the branches with lazy lips. Unfortunately the berry bushes were leading the bear toward Rebecca, and she realized, as the bear came closer, that it was bigger than she had originally thought. She found out just how big it was when it paused and looked at her, ears pinned in her direction and nose twitching, lower lip limp revealing teeth. The bear lumbered toward her, Rebecca holding perfectly still. What else could she do? Running would make it chase her, and on the ground she wasn’t in a good position to do anything quickly. 

It rose up on its hind legs, her breath leaving her as she realized the bear had been farther away than she realized when she first saw it. The Jorvik Brown Bears were supposed to be smaller, the males staying under 500 pounds or 220 kilograms. They weren’t supposed to stand taller than six feet, not much taller than most people. 

But this bear was a monster. On its hind legs it towered over her, dwarfing the nearby trees. Her eyes fully adjusted to the night she remained in place, frozen in fear. She couldn’t outrun it, she couldn’t recall the number but she knew bears could easily outrun humans. The bear looked down at her, opened its mouth, and roared. 

Fuck. 

Rebecca rolled to the side and scrambled to her feet, the bear slamming down to the ground and snapping after her. She couldn’t outrun it, she sure as hell couldn’t fight it. 

“Come on!” she roared back at the bear, screaming with all her might, balls of electricity forming in her hands. She didn’t want to have to use it, she didn’t want to cause a fire or hurt the bear. She just didn’t want to be eaten. 

The light from her hands made the bear pause for a moment before it roared at her once more. It lifted a massive paw to swing at her but ended up slamming it to the ground, tearing at the earth as it tried to get a grip.

Rebecca, now looking behind the bear, really wished she had her rune wand with her. The bear roared, throwing its head back and looking behind, snarling at the tentacle that had wrapped around its back leg and pulled it.

The pink crack that the tentacle reached from expanded, slicing the air in a jagged line and spreading open, more tentacles reaching through. 

This must be the kraken forest spirits mentioned in the folklore section of the Ranger station. 

Tentacles, pulsing a vibrant pink and purple with orange splotches, wrapped around the bear and hauled it backwards, strangling the bear. Rebecca let the lightning go, aimed at the tentacles. The lightning strikes made the tentacles release, steam making the tentacles sound like they were hissing, and maybe they were hissing in agony and outrage. The bear escaped the grasp of the pandorian creature, roaring and backing up to Rebecca. Rebecca was the bear’s friend now it seemed. 

The tentacles withdrew into the pink tear in space before shooting out, trying to grab at Rebecca and the bear. The bear jerked backwards, slamming into Rebecca who stumbled back. 

Camping on the side of a cliff wasn’t the best idea, Rebecca thought to herself as her foot dropped into empty air and she tumbled back over the side. At least there weren’t tentacles down there. 

Rebecca was able to process that the bear had followed her over the side, and that the bear was reaching out its jaws and grabbing Rebecca by the neck with its teeth. They fell into a pink and purple sky, the bear holding Rebecca firmly between its teeth like a cub, Rebecca feeling a massive paw on her back as the bear held her. She grabbed the paw and the bear loosened its grip on her neck, allowing Rebecca to clamour up the bear and onto its back. 

That was when Rebecca realized they were falling in Pandoria, passing clouds and islands and more clouds, finally slowing down when they landed in a floating lake of vibrant blue. Rebecca wouldn’t call it water, it was very sticky, but she was glad the falling had stopped. She held onto the bear, the bear paddling through the water to the edge of the lake to fall, much slower this time, onto one of the floating islands. 

With land beneath her Rebecca slid off the bear, taller than any of her horses even on all fours, and looked at the bear. So truce?

The bear wandered over to a giant mushroom, sniffing the spores before knocking the tree down and eating it.

Looks like a truce.

Rebecca looked around, wondering where and when they were. The bear seemed totally unbothered by the change of location happily munching on the giant mushroom cap. Did the animals of Mistfall regularly cross over to Pandoria? Maybe all the animals of Jorvik did, the wolf pack in Golden certainly had Pandorian magic influencing them. 

She walked around, walking around the giant mushrooms so they couldn’t drop their stinging spores on her. The bear seemed not to mind them. There seemed to be no way off this particular island, although getting to another one probably wouldn’t help Rebecca much anyway. She didn’t know how to make portals, and she had no idea how she would find an open one to the right time and location. 

Looking up she saw a moon, surprised to see a moon in Pandoria. Had there always been a moon in Pandoria? Light seemed to come from everywhere here.

She froze, staring up at the moon.

Was it looking at her?

Rebecca realized the moon was getting closer to her, the darkness around it not from the night sky of Pandoria but from the body the eye inhabited. Impossibly huge, Rebecca couldn’t even make out the shape as the eye, growing bigger as it approached, came down until it was closer to her, inspecting her, a massive shining white orb looking at her with mild interest. She heard a loud rumbling, it shook the island she stood on, and she wondered if that was the sound of the creature breathing. Craning her neck to look as high up as she could she thought she saw branches, dark tendrils in the pink haze above them. How big was this thing?

The eye blinked, a pop of light making Rebecca blink and rub her eyes, the brightness momentarily blinding her. 

But she knew she was still being watched, and when she could see again she saw a creature towering over her. Several heads taller than her, the same big white eyes looked down at her from a long deer like face, antlers reaching high above the creature. Rebecca didn’t dare move as her eyes slid down the long body of the creature, three sets of limbs attached to a snake like body that coiled on the ground, the creature some sort of strange deer naga with too many limbs. The coiled body on the ground expanded as the creature sank down, Rebecca painfully aware that it was studying her just as much as she was gawking at it. 

Feathers around its head rose slightly, covered in scales and feathers instead of fur, the rising feathers making a sort of crown around its head. It leaned down and sniffed Rebecca, deeply inhaling her scent. A second set of eyes opened on its face, looking at Rebecca just as critically as the first set of eyes had. It reached out with the highest of its set of limbs, scaly hands hovering over Rebecca without touching her. 

She had heard about some of the creatures of Pandoria, but what was this? She knew it was the same giant as before, how had it changed its size so dramatically?

“Can you help me? I need to get back to Jorvik,” Rebecca asked, unsure what else to do. Her speech made the creature reach for her mouth, hands again hovering just above her skin. 

“Lost.” It didn’t have a mouth that she could see, and nothing opened, but she knew the ancient and powerful voice was the creature studying her. 

“Yes, I am lost, I don’t belong in this world,” Rebecca answered. At this the creature touched her, warm despite the black void of color that it was. Too dark to even be called black, all light simply vanished into its body. 

“No.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I don’t belp-” she couldn’t finish her sentence, the creature inspecting her mouth by pinching her lip. 

“You want to go home.” Its eternal voice was so sad it made her ache, something deeply personal in how it spoke. She didn’t understand why but she found herself tearing up, the pain of homesickness ripping her heart apart. 

“Yes, I want to go home,” at her answer the creature turned its head away, though with the two eyes on the side of its head she was sure it was still looking at her with at least one of them. It looked off into the distance, long mule like ears perked up. 

Rebecca wasn’t sure what it was looking at, thinking perhaps it was waiting for something. 

A desperate wailing shook Rebecca, making her legs jiggle and the creature had to hold her up. The cry was familiar, strange noises coming from beneath the island before tentacles shot up into the air around them. As far as she could see tentacles were writhing in pain before the cry ended and the arms receded back into the depths.

The creatures arms around her melted away, allowing Rebecca to walk over to the edge and peer down into the purple haze below. 

“Garnok…” Rebecca muttered.

“Lost,” the ancient voice made Rebecca turn and look back at the creature, surprised when it wasn’t there. She spun around, seeing the behemoth's eye on her once more. She watched it stand up, its eye disappearing into the distance above. Rebecca looked down, seeing the blackness of the creature descending forever into the nothingness. 

She took a step back from the edge, watching the giant disappear at it moved away, done with watching her. Somehow she knew it was larger than Garnok, larger and older and so much stranger.

“Oh fuck,” Rebecca groaned, realizing she still had no way to get back. She turned around and looked back at the bear, still happily munching on the mushroom. It didn’t seem at all bothered by the strange creature that had just been there. 

Rebecca walked over to the bear, who gave her a curious look before returning to eating.

“Atalanta. That’s a good bear name,” Rebecca said while gently petting the bear. 

“Any idea how we go home?” Rebecca asked, Atalanta looking up at Rebecca again, eyes flashing purple.

“Home,” the bear’s voice in her head echoed.

“Yes, back to Jorvik,” Rebecca clarified. The bear snorted and went back to munching.

“Food,” the bear huffed.

“But I need to get back, can you show me the way?” Rebecca tried to persuade the bear. Berry bushes were tiny compared to giant edible mushrooms, so tempting with berries probably wouldn’t do much.

“Pandora,” the bear answered. Rebecca froze.

“Pandora, as in the wolf pup I named Pandora?” the bear, to Rebecca’s surprise, nodded, throwing its head up as if miming a wolf howling before going back to eating.

“Alright…” Rebecca shrugged and turned away, looking into the distance. She took a deep breath, figured what the hell, and did her best wolf howl. 

Atalanta paused their chewing to look up at Rebecca, listening for a moment, before returning to the mushroom. 

“Friend!” the voice called in Rebecca’s mind, sounding far away. 

“I can’t believe that worked,” Rebecca grumbled, scratching claws giving her a warning before a growing puppy tackled her. 

“Play?” Pandora begged on Rebecca’s chest, having successfully knocked the human woman to the ground.

“Play!” a chorus of voices made Rebecca look at the rest of the Golden wolf pack. Pandora wasn’t the only one with pink anymore, purple and pink markings appearing on the other pups. 

“I need to get home, I’m lost,” Rebecca answered, thinking for a moment before adding, “I can’t find my den.” Some of the pups whined at that, looking sad as if they understood. 

“Follow!” one of the larger wolves said, Rebecca wasn’t sure how she could tell which voice was which but somehow she knew which wolf was speaking to her. Rebecca did as bid, following what she figured was the leader of the pack.

“See you later, Atalanta!” Rebecca bid to the bear, the bear tossing their head in farewell. 

The wolf leading her scratched at the ground of the island, paws shining pink as it dug into, well, Rebecca couldn’t describe it. At first it was the ground, then the wolf seemed to be digging into reality, opening a portal before crawling through. 

Rebecca followed, wriggling through a strange dark portal, the purple light around her making it hard to tell which dimension she was it. When she reached the darkness at the end of the tunnel she hoped she was in the wolf den proper, and with some more crawling she pushed through the bushes and saw Golden Hills Valley. It was still nighttime and she hoped it was the same night. 

Pandora licked at her fingers, making Rebecca look at the puppy.

“Thanks, sweetie,” Rebecca said with a smile, petting the wolf. The one who had led her through, no longer talking and no longer marked with pink, stood in front of Rebecca, wagging their tail.

Pandora jumped up on Rebecca before bounding away. The wolf pack escorted her home, excited by all the new sights and smells especially when they got to Mistfall and they smelled a different pack. The wolves barked their goodbyes and trotted back home, happy that Rebecca was safe.

Rebecca returned to her backpack, not surprised to see Atalanta happily napping on the brush pile Rebecca had used as a bed earlier that night.

“You’re a butt,” Rebecca pouted with her hands on her hips, Atalanta looking at her with one sleepy eye open and a teasing smile. 

Alonso was pleased, if bewildered, when he saw Rebecca walking down the path.

“What happened to your hair?” he asked, Rebecca not realizing that it had turned blue and was sticking up in odd ways,

“I met one of those kraken spirits,” Rebecca grumbled. Alonso laughed but grabbed her hand and shook it.

“Well congrats! You passed the Ranger Basic Survival test!” Alonso praised her, Rebecca biting back a sarcastic question about what the advanced survival test involved.


End file.
